Those of us that strive to eat organic know that it’s rarely the cheapest way to eat. Hopefully I can shed some light on strategies for minimizing the impact to your wallet, while maximizing the impact to your health. Here are two articles, one from The Motley Fool and the other from The NY Times, that discuss strategies for getting the most organic bang for your buck. I prefer The Motley Fool’s article, as I don’t eat 4 of the 5 items on NYT’s list, but I’m sharing it too since not everyone eats like me.

I’ll start with The Motley Fool article.

1. Find your nearest CSA (community sponsored agriculture) program.
2. Learn how to cook.
3. Go late to the farmer’s market.
4. Preserve.
5. Think seasonally.
6. Cooperate.
7. Turn your thumb green.

First, check Local Harvest to find CSAs and Farmer’s Markets in your area. Frequent those as you can actually talk to the growers of your food and find out about their growing methods. Local produce is going to be fresher and typically tastier than the artificially ripened stuff in the grocery store. And it’s usually a good bit cheaper too. That knocks out numbers 1, 3, and 5, since local farmers can only sell you what’s in season. I prefer to go early to the farmer’s market as I’m much more interested in getting my pick of a wide range of produce rather than a truckload of zucchini for a song.

Learn to cook. Number two is one that everyone knows is a way to save money on food. It’s really not hard to cook and you don’t need involved recipes to make a delicious meal. My meals are typically some sort of meat with a side of steamed vegetables and sometimes some sweet potato or squash. I rarely put together a gourmet feast, but through the use of different herbs and spices, along with a few flavorful additions, my meal plan never gets boring. If I’m having ground meat or eggs, my meals are typically “one skillet meals” where I throw in the vegetables, meat, spices, and anything else, cook it all together, and dish it onto a plate.

Now onto the NY Times article.

1. Milk
2. Potatoes
3. Peanut Butter
4. Ketchup
5. Apples

So I don’t consume milk, potatoes, peanut butter, or ketchup, but I do eat apples. I prefer almond butter over peanut butter as peanuts are a legume. Ketchup is typically loaded with sugar of some sort, high fructose corn syrup if you’re eating the regular brands. Here’s a sad statistic: “About 75 percent of tomato consumption is in the form of processed tomatoes, including juice, tomato paste and ketchup.” Sadly that and potatoes count as part of American’s already paltry vegetable consumption. These guidelines are for the typical American given what most people are consuming and the level of funk that these foods represent when conventionally-grown.

Finally, here are a couple links to help you decide where to spend your food money to keep your plate clean of pesticides. First, get The 12 Most Tainted Fruits and Vegetables organically grown if you can. And here are The 12 Cleanest Fruits and Vegetables that you can stick with conventional on if you need to stretch your food dollar (and who doesn’t?).

Also, via Wired Berries: here are some Coupons on Organic Products. I don’t use any of these brands, but you might.


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